Cakes, Pies and other baked goods

Linzer Torte

Ingredients

• 100 g soft, unsalted butter (about 1 stick)
• 100 g white sugar
• 100 g ground almonds (can be replaced by hazelnuts)
• 100 g white (whole wheat, if you want) flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of ground cloves
• 1 egg
• 150-200 g red currant jam (or raspberry jam)
• confectioners' sugar to sprinkle on top
• optionally: some Kirschwasser (cherry liquor)
• optionally: sliced almonds

Preparation

Mix butter, sugar, almonds, flour, spices and the egg into a thick dough. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll out about 3/4 of the dough between wax paper and use it to line a round spring form pan. Mix jam with the optional liquor and fill evenly into baking pan. Roll out the remaining dough, cut in strips, and place them on top of the cake in a rectangular grid pattern. Optionally, cover the strips with eggwash, and place sliced almonds around the rim.
Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35 minutes or until light brown. Let cool down, cover and let soak in a cool place for at least one day. Serve with confectioners sugar sprinkled on top.

Leipziger Apfelkuchen
"The judge's cake" ;-)

Ingredients

• 200 g unsalted butter
• 200 g white sugar
• 4 eggs
• lemon zest (from one lemon)
• pinch of salt
• 200 g white flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 6 large apples
• some cinnamon sugar
• confectioners' sugar to sprinkle on top

Preparation

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs, lemon zest and salt. Slowly add flour and baking soda, one tablespoon at a time.
Pour the dough into a lightly greased springform pan. Core and peel apples, and cut them in half. Make several parallel cuts across the top of each half. Put the apples on the cake, with the cuts facing upwards, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Bake at 360°F (180°C) for about 45 minutes. Let cool before you remove the pan, and sprinkle confectioners' sugar on top.

Schwäbischer Hefezopf

Ingredients

• 220 ml warm milk
• 70 g white sugar
• 1 thread of saffron (optional)
• 1 envelope of vanilla sugar
• pinch of salt
• lemon zest (of about 1/2 to 1 lemon)
• 100 g soft, unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 envelope of dried yeast
• 500 g flour
• 50-100g raisins (optional)
• 1 shot of rum (optional)

• 1 egg
• 40g sliced or slivered almonds (optional)
• 40g coarse decorating sugar (optional)

Preparation

Soak raisins in the rum (or warm water) ideally for at least a day.
Carefully warm milk to about 30-40 °C and dissolve sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and lemon zest. Take off heat and melt butter into milk. Bonus points: add saffron.
Combine flour, yeast, egg, rum raisins and warm milk mixture and knead into a yeast dough. Cover and let rest for about 1 hour until it at least doubled in size.
Divide the dough into three equal pieces, and manually knead in the strained raisins. Cover and let the three pieces rest for another 20 minutes.
Roll into three strands and braid them on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper. Whisk the remaining egg and brush the braided dough with the egg wash. Sprinkle with almonds and coarse sugar, then let rest for another 10-15 minutes.
Bake at 340°F (170°C) for about 35-40 minutes until nice and golden grown. Let cool down before slicing.

Mohnzopf

Ingredients

• 250 g flour
• 125 ml warm milk
• 30 g white sugar
• 1 envelope of dried yeast
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 40 g unsalted butter
• lemon zest (of about 1/2 to 1 lemon)

• 1 egg
• 100g ground poppy seeds
• 50g white sugar
• 90ml milk
• 25g butter
• 50g chopped almonds (optional)
• 50g raisins (optional)

• 50g powedered sugar
• lemon juice

Preparation

Combine flour, milk, butter, sugar, yeast, egg, lemon zest, and salt and knead into a yeast dough. Cover and let rest for about 1 hour.
Gently heat the milk in a pot, add sugar and butter. Stir in ground poppy seeds and almonds/raisins until you have a smooth paste. Let cool and stir in the egg.
On a floured surface, roll the dough into a thin sheet. Cover evenly with the poppy seed filling, then roll it up. Flaten the roll a bit, then carefully cut lengthwise once with a knife. Transfer onto a baking sheet, and twist the two strands starting in the middle, working your way to both ends.
Bake at 200°C for about 20-25 minutes. Dissolve the powdered sugar in a few drops of lemon juice, and while still hot cover the Mohnzopf using a brush.

Nusszopf

Ingredients

• 250 g flour
• 125 ml warm milk
• 30 g white sugar
• 1 envelope of dried yeast
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 40 g unsalted butter
• lemon zest (of about 1/2 to 1 lemon)

• 1 egg
• 200g ground hazelnuts
• 50g brown sugar
• 50ml milk or rum or orange juice
• 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
• lemon zest (of about 1/2 to 1 lemon)
• 50g raisins (optional)

• 50g powedered sugar
• lemon juice
• chopped hazel nuts (optional)

Preparation

Combine flour, milk, butter, sugar, yeast, egg, lemon zest, and salt and knead into a yeast dough. Cover and let rest for about 1 hour.
Gently warm the liquid in a pot and dissolve sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest. Stir in hazelnuts and raisins to form a smooth paste. Let cool and stir in the egg.
On a floured surface, roll the dough into a thin sheet. Cover evenly with the hazelnut filling, then roll it up. Flaten the roll a bit, then carefully cut lengthwise once with a knife. Transfer onto a baking sheet, and twist the two strands starting in the middle, working your way to both ends.
Bake at 200°C for about 20-25 minutes. Dissolve the powdered sugar in a few drops of lemon juice, and while still hot cover the Nusszopf using a brush.

Ofenschlupfer

Swabians and Scots have at least one thing in common: Both hate to waste money.
And since those old buns from last Sunday did cost money, we don't throw them away. All right, they are from Sunday before last, hard as rocks and not very tasty any more! But still, no need to let them go to waste. Instead we make a delicious apple dessert out of it.
So here we go:

Ingredients

• about 6 old plain white buns (or about 12 slices old white bread)
• 250 ml milk
• 100 g white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 decently sized apples (I prefer the slightly sour ones)
• 100 g raisins (if you want to be really fancy soak them in some rum)

• 125 ml milk
• 50 g sugar
• cinnamon
• lemon zest
• 4 eggs
• 50 g thin sliced almonds

Preparation

Start with the bread first. Cut the dried buns into thin slices (they should be about halve the size of your regular slices of bread, definitely not bigger than those!). Put the sliced buns in a big bowl.

Put the milk in a pot and slowly heat it on the stove (don't do it in the microwave, it'll be a mess!). Add the sugar and the vanilla extract and stir well while heating. You don't need to bring it to a boil, just make sure it's about 50°C - 60°C. Then pour this mixture over the cut buns and let them soak.
While they are soaking, prepare the apples. Peel them, cut them in quarters and get rid of the core. Then cut the quarters in thin slices and put them into another bowl. Add the raisins and carefully mix them together.
To prepare the casserole simply grease it with some butter. Then put in one layer of the soaked bread and one layer of apples. Repeat until the casserole is full. Make sure you finish with a layer of Apples on top. Sprinkle the sliced almonds on top of it all.

Now it's time to prepare the topping. Take the pot you used before and put in the milk and the eggs. Do not heat it this time! Just blend the two together well. Add sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest (to taste) and blend well. Then pour this mixture over the apples.
Bake the whole thing at 200°C (gas: level 4) for 45-50 minutes (check from time to time to see how it is doing). Then serve while hot with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Rhabarberkuchen

Ingredients

• 250 g white flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 75 g white sugar
• 100 g unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 eggs

• 1.5 - 2 kg rhubarb
• 50 - 100 g white sugar

• 3 egg whites
• 50 g white sugar

Clean and skin rhubarb, cut into small pieces, and cover with sugar. Let soak for up to one day.
Mix butter, sugar, eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy. Add flour and baking soda. If the mixture ends up too dry, add a little milk one tablespoon at a time. Fill batter into cookie sheet or spring form.
Strain rhubarb and distribute over cake. Bake at 170°C for about 20 - 25 minutes. Whip egg whites and sugar, and distribute evenly on top of the cake. Bake for another 20 minutes.

Zwetschgenkuchen Alt-Lübecker Art

Ingredients

• 500 g white flour
• 1 envelope yeast
• 1⁄4 l warm milk
• 70 g white sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 80 g unsalted butter
• lemon zest of one lemon

• 150 g marzipan
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 shots of rum
• 1 pinch of salt
• 250 g ground or chopped almonds
• 100 g plain bread crumbs
• 4 egg whites
• 160 g white sugar
• 2 kg damsons (a kind of plums, prunus domestica insititia to be precise)
• 100 g coarse decorating sugar

Preparation

Prepare a yeast dough: Mix flour, yeast and warm milk. Add sugar and other ingredients, and knead into a dough. Let rise for one hour until the size has doubled. Knead again, and roll out onto cookie sheet.
Note: If you like a thin crust, you can reduce all ingredients by 1/2.

Blend marzipan with egg yolk and rum into a smooth mixture, then add almonds and bread crumbs. Whip egg whites and sugar in a separate bowl, and carefully fold in the marzipan mixture. Spread on the dough, and place the damson halves on the cake (like shingles on a roof).
Bake for 40 minutes at 200°C - 220°C (ideally the first 20 minutes only on lower heat, then on convection). Immediately afterwards sprinkle coarse decorating sugar on top.

The cake is particularly good and juicy after one or two days (keeps well if simply covered with a kitchen cloth).

Cherry Almond Traybake

Ingredients

• 120 g unsalted butter
• 120 g white sugar
• 1 envelope vanilla sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 envelope baking soda
• 120 g flour
• 60 g ground almonds
• 250 g tart cherries (frozen, drained, or fresh)
• 40 g sliced almonds (optional)

Preparation

Mix butter, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt until fluffy. Add eggs and mix well. Mix in flour and ground almonds until smooth. Gently add cherries and manually combine.

Line a small tray with baking parchment and evenly fill with the mixture. Sprinkle on sliced almonds and bake in preheated oven at 180°C (350°F) for about 35-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Afterwards, slowly let cool off before removing from the tray.

Deutscher Käsekuchen

Ingredients

• 150 g white flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 pinch of salt
• 40 g white sugar
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 1 egg

• 450 g Quark (or, less good, Ricotta; in the worst case cottage cheese, as long as you blend it into a smooth paste first)
• 200 ml sour cream
• 200 ml whipping cream
• 125 g white sugar
• 2 large eggs (or 3 medium)
• lemon zest of one small lemon (or 2 Tbs lemon juice)
• 1 Tbs vanilla extract (or 1 envelope vanilla sugar)
• 1/2 cup of raisins (optional)
• 30 g corn starch
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 40 g sliced almonds (optional)

Preparation

Mix flour, baking soda, salt and sugar, then swiftly add cool butter and egg. Knead into a dough and refrigerate for at least half an hour. Then roll out dough and line a small or medium size spring form baking pan with it. The dough is easiest to handle when it is cold.

Mix Quark with sour and whipping cream, and blend together well. Add sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla extract, raisins and corn starch, and mix well. Finally, add baking soda and fill mixture into the prepared crust. Sprinkle sliced almonds on top.

Bake at 180°C (350°F) for about 50 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Afterwards, slowly let cool off in the oven. The cake stays fresh several days if refrigerated. Serve at room temperature for best taste!

Erdbeertorte

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs (or 4 medium)
• 70 g white sugar
• 3 tablespoons of water
• 50 g fine wheat flour
• 50 g starch flour (corn or potato)
• 1 envelope (7 g) baking powder

• 300 ml whipping cream
• 500 g fresh strawberries
• 40 g sugar
• 1 envelope vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
• 1 shot of rum (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 180°C with top and bottom heat.

Separate eggs, beat whites to stiff peaks and set aside. Beat together sugar, egg yolk and water for at least 5 minutes until it is a very foamy, white cream. Sift in flour, starch and baking powder, and mix together. Add egg whites, and gently fold in (don't mix!) until no large white chunks are visible.

Pour into a spring form lined with baking paper at the bottom, and bake at 180°C for about 20-30 minutes until the top is starting to turn golden brown. Take out of the oven and let cool off before removing from pan. Once fully cooled, carefully make a level cut with a large knife to cut the cake into a top and bottom part.

Meanwhile, wash and cut off the green leaves from the strawberries. Whip the cream with the sugar until stiff. Pick about 1/3 of the smaller and less pretty strawberries, and chop them into pieces. Gently mix those and the rum into about 1/4 of the whipped cream.

Cover the bottom half of the cake with the strawberry and cream mixture, flip the top (to get a smooth flat top surface) and place it back on the cake. Cover the cake with the remaining cream, cut remaining strawberries in halves, and decorate top and sides.

Refrigerate for at least one hour, better over night, before serving.

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• a pinch of salt
• 3/4 cups water
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 3 eggs (or 2 large)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 can of tart cherries (in water)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 pint cream
• 12 maraschino cherries

Preparation

Mix flour, baking soda, sugar, cocoa, and salt with the water and canola oil and beat for a minute.
Add egg and vanilla, and mix for another 5 minutes with a hand mixer. Pour into 9" round baking pans, and bake at 180°C (350°F) in preheated oven for 25 minutes. When done, let cool down completely first, then loosen from pan.
Cut the top off to make level surface if needed.

Whip the cream with the sugar until stiff and set aside about 1/3 of it. Drain cherries and carefully blend into the remaining whipped cream. Assemble the cake by putting one of the baked cakes on a plate, covering it with the cherry and cream mixture. Place second cake on top, and cover the whole cake with the remaining plain whipped cream.
Place the maraschino cherries in a circle around the top of the cake, and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Schokoladenigel

Ingredients

• 300 g dark chocolate (Ghirardelli chocolate chips will do)
• 2 tablespoons hot water
• 150 g butter (unsalted!)
• 2 small eggs (or 1 large)
• 100 g powedered sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons rum
• 250 - 300 g lady fingers (those long biscuits also used for Tiramisu)

• 200 g dark baking chocolate (again, Ghirardelli chocolate chips work just fine)
• 50-100 g almond slivers
• 1 teaspoon white sugar

Preparation

Break the chocolate into small pieces (you see, you saved a full step if you got chocolate chips!), mix with the hot water and slowly melt on the stove at very low heat. Set aside to let it cool down again a bit afterwards.
Cream the butter and the eggs together well and slowly add the powedered sugar and salt in the end. Carefully incorporate the cooled down (but still liquid) chocolate and the rum until it has a smooth creamy texture. Set aside in the fridge for half an hour until it starts to become firm.

Use the lady fingers to lay out a rectangle on a large plate. Cover with some of the chocolate cream and add another layer of biscuits and so on. Make each layer a little smaller than the preceding one so that you get something that roughly resembles the shape of a hedgehog. Break the biscuits in half as you reach the top. Add what is left of the cream to the sides of the hedgehog to cover up all of the biscuits. Refrigerate this for at least 1 hour.

Melt the baking chocolate and cover the hedgehog with it. Right after that place sugar and almond slivers in a pan and brown them a little. Then stick the slivers into the not yet quite hardened chocolate like quills. Add a face made of almonds on one side.
The chocolate hedgehog tastes best if refrigerated for 24 hours before it is served so that the chocolate cream can soak into the biscuits.

Kwarkbollen

This Dutch winter time favorite is a tasty variation on the classical doughnuts.

Ingredients

• 250 g Quark
• 250 g white flour
• 75 g white sugar
• 1 envelope of baking powder
• 3 eggs
• some vanilla (extract or real)
• 2 drops of lemon oil
• pinch of salt
• 50 g raisins (optional)

Preparation

Mix all ingedients into a smooth dough. Heat a deep fryer to about 180°C or heat about 1 l of sunflower oil in a pot. Using a table spoon, form golf ball sized balls and drop them into the hot oil. Use a slotted spoon to turn them and fry until golden brown. Then let cool on kitchen towel.

Puddingkuchen

Ingredients

• 120 g white flour
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 75 g sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1 can of apricot halfs (or peaches or mandarins or ...)
• 1 small packet vanilla pudding (not the instant type!)
• milk or cream according to pudding instructions

Preparation

Mix flour, butter, sugar, baking soda and egg into dough. Line small spring baking pan with the dough. Cover with the apricot halfs or other fruit. Prepare the pudding with milk (or cream) according to instructions, and while warm pour into the cake. Bake for one hour at 180°C (350°F).
Afterwards, let cool and refrigerate. Tastes best if you let it soak for a day or so.

Marmorkuchen

Ingredients

• 200 g of soft, unsalted butter
• 200 g of white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 Tbs vanilla extract
• 200 g of white flour
• 1/2 Tbs baking powder
• 1 cup of eierlikeur (Advocaat)
• 1/4 cup of cocoa

Preparation

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs and the vanilla extract. Slowly add flour and baking soda. Lastly add eierlikeur.
Pour half of the mix into a baking pan, while keeping the other half in the bowl. Blend in the cocoa and add the mixture to the baking pan. Use a fork to blend the white and black dough just enough to make the marble pattern.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 75 minutes. Let cool before you remove the cake from the pan.

Lemon Drizzle

Ingredients

• 125 g of soft, unsalted butter
• 150 g of white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 lemons (juice & grated zest)
• 1 Tbs vanilla extract
• 1 envelope of baking powder
• 180 g of white flour
• 4-5 Tbs milk
• 75 g icing sugar

Preparation

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs, 3 Tbs of lemon juice, all of the lemon zest, and the vanilla extract. Finally, slowly add flour and baking soda, and some milk as needed.
Pour the mix into a rectangular baking pan, then bake at 370°F (180°C) for about 45 minutes.
Slowly mix the icing sugar with the remaining lemon juice to form a syrup. While still hot from the oven, drizzle over the cake and let it soak in.
Only when fully cooled, remove from pan and enjoy.

Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 150 g of soft, unsalted butter
• 150 g of white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbs vanilla extract
• 1 envelope of baking powder
• 150 g of white or whole-wheat flour
• 3+ black, mushy bananas

Preparation

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs and the vanilla extract. Slowly add flour and baking soda. Lastly add mushed banana paste.
Pour the mix into a rectangular baking pan, then bake at 350°F (170°C) for about 50-60 minutes. Let cool before you remove the banana bread from the pan.

Key lime pie

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup fresh key lime juice
• 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 frozen pre-made pie crust

Preparation

Separate the eggs. Mix sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and egg yolks in a bowl. Fill into the pie crust and bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 F. While it is baking, beat the egg whites and once they are stiff add the sugar. Spread the meringue over the hot pie and put it back into the oven to bake for another 10-15 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Acknowledgements

These recipies are inspired by recipies from various other sources, including but not limited to Simply Recipies and Chefkoch.